In addition to a hunt, a hound-trail is held at Mardale. Some of the upholders of the fashionable hounds in the Shires, who believe that this type is second to none for pace, would, I think, be inclined to change their opinion, if they timed one of these trails. The hounds entered are nothing more than fell foxhounds. Sometimes one of a litter bred at the kennels goes as a trail hound, and vice versâ. Yet, with all their pace, these hounds can hunt a cold line with the best, and will let you know all about it whilst they are doing it.
I have already mentioned the fact that the fell hounds pick up the drag of their fox, and work this out until they reach his hiding-place and unkennel him.
Sometimes the drag covers a long distance. When the Rev. E. M. Reynolds was Master of the Coniston Hounds, the latter picked up a drag near Rydal Park, carried it over High Pike up to Hart Crag, and down the ridge into Hartsop, where they unkennelled their fox in Low Wood overlooking Brothers’ Water. On another occasion the same pack struck a drag in Skelghyll Wood, near Windermere Lake, carried it forward the entire length of the Troutbeck valley, and out at Threshwaite Mouth at the fell head, unkennelling their fox about a mile beyond the last-mentioned point. As a rule, it is pretty safe to say that a drag which leads towards the high ground, is right, though on occasion such a line may prove to be heel-way. Even old and experienced hounds are not infallible when it comes to differentiating between the right way and heel, despite the fact that one meets people who swear their hounds won’t run heel. After covering a lot of rough ground on the drag, and having at last unkennelled your fox, the real business of the day has only just begun. Before night, if you are in pursuit of an old stager, you may find yourself many miles from home, with darkness coming on, and a rough track to follow.
One of the longest, if not the longest, hunt I ever took part in occurred on January 15th, 1914. The Coniston Hounds met that day at Strawberry Bank, in the Winster valley. They found their fox at 10 o’clock, and the last followers of the field which started out in the morning, acknowledged themselves beaten at 5 p.m. Hounds ran for several hours longer, until darkness enabled the fox to finally shake off his pursuers. From the time hounds unkennelled their fox, until they were run out of scent, was 9½ hours, sufficient, I think, to constitute a record.
Such a day is one to be set down in red ink in the hunting diary.
ULLSWATER FOXHOUNDS: GONE TO GROUND BELOW HIGH PIKE IN THE SCANDALE VALLEY.
Taking it all through, the fell country carries a good scent, except in early autumn and spring, when the sun exerts considerable power, and the bracken and dead leaves get very dry. There is little limestone in the district, but now and then hounds run a fox to such places as Whitbarrow, where, unless the atmosphere is very damp, they often experience considerable difficulty in sticking to the line. “There’s nowt sae queer as scent,” and though we sometimes think we know a good deal about it, there generally comes a time when all our prophecies prove wrong. Now and then in the fell country there comes a day when the atmosphere is very clear, and there is an absence of wind. Overhead the clouds look heavy, and the day may be described as “dark.” The colour of the distant hills tones off from indigo to mauve; but for all the general effect of darkness, every stone and crag shows up distinctly. On such a day I have often known a screaming scent, while hounds could be both easily seen and heard.
Jorrocks, wise old bird, said, “Take not out your ’ounds upon a werry windy day,” and his advice is good, but for all that I have seen hounds run like mad in a gale, screaming along yards wide of the line, the scent drifting with the wind.
There are, of course, several factors that have an influence on scent. There is the fox himself, the nature of the soil (clay, gravel, etc.), the condition of the surface, such as grass, plough, moorland or woodland; the temporary state of the surface, wet, dry, dusty, etc.; and the state of the weather.